Manly Scandalous Secrets
by Secret Account 11
Summary: A simple parody following the gAang and Zuko through the series. Main pairing is ZukoxSokka, though several others are also mentioned.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: First of all, this is a parody. So, crazy, weird things happen, the fourth wall is broken, first person is randomly used at points, etc. It's not really meant to be taken completely seriously, so if any comments are given on "bad writing style" or something (unless they are comments that make it clear they realize it's a _parody_ and are correcting something in that realm) probably won't be listened to. Other than that though, we'd absolutely love feedback. :) Also, since this is indeed a parody, strange pairings will occur. Boyxboy and girlxgirl pairings included, just to warn you. A few examples of "scandalous" pairings that will be included in some form are SokkaxZuko (which is the main pairing...The entire story focuses on these two), Ty LeexAzula, and HakodaxSuki (yes, total crack pairing). Umm...I think that's about it. Basically, every chapter is going through one or two episodes with our own humorous (or at least we hope it's humorous) take on the show. Enjoy. :)**

A banished prince by the name of Zuko was on his intimidating ship (of doom), when he saw a bright light flash through the sky. At once, he knew it was the Avatar (a 112 year old boy who will eventually take out the Fire Nation and save the world), and, being a banished prince, Zuko wanted to capture the Avatar to regain his honor.

After stalking the Avatar-Aang-through a telescope, Zuko soon figured out that he was hiding in a small Water Tribe village. The village looked rather pathetic, to be honest, so the prince knew how easy it would be.

In an instant, Zuko steered his ship toward the village, causing chaos when his ship tore through the ice and came close to running straight through the Water Tribe homes. When the front of his ship opened awkwardly, Zuko strolled out wearing a super cool helmet to conceal his ridiculous ponytail.

Since the prince was obviously not a wimp, he had several guards walking around him for protection. That was when his life changed.

Amongst the crowd of women and children, a young man stood with defiance on his face. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail that was ten times manlier than Zuko's, and his face was covered with war paint. He was the most beautiful creature Zuko had ever seen.

The Water Tribe warrior rushed at Zuko to give him a hug (or at least, that's what Zuko thought), but Zuko quickly knocked him aside to keep his manliness. He couldn't let anyone know about his newly developed crush. Instead, he kidnapped Aang, making the excuse that he wanted to regain his honor when he only wanted to find a way to get closer to the beautiful young man.

Aang easily escaped once on the ship and beat up Zuko, but he had no way to actually get off the ship. Luckily, the Water Tribe siblings, Sokka (the manly boy Zuko fell for) and Katara the water bender had come to the rescue on Aang's flying bison Appa! Hooray!

Aang jumped on Appa after he and the Water Tribe kids took out pretty much every single person on the ship, but Sokka wasn't done yet. He saw that poor Prince Zuko had fallen off of the deck of the ship and was hanging on to the side of it for his life.

Sokka helped him onto the ship with a long stick (Aang's airbending staff), but before he was completely on the boat, Sokka realized that he shouldn't be rescuing the enemy and instead hit him in the head with the stick until he let go. Zuko was very sad that his love had just pushed him into the ocean surrounding Antarctica, but not mad enough to stop his plan to stalk him all the way around the world.


	2. Chapter 2

For many weeks, Zuko spent all his time chasing Aang. Well, that's what he told everyone, anyway. He actually was only chasing Aang because he longed to see the Water Tribe warrior, whose name, he discovered, was Sokka. Sokka was all he had been thinking about ever since that fateful day.

One day, he met a super hot man named Haru. For a bit, Zuko had a small crush on this earthbender, but he knew that his true love was still Sokka. Zuko, being the creepy stalker he is, followed Haru to a prison, which he was taken to for being an earthbender. There, they had a small affair when Zuko found out that Haru had a crush on him, too. (That was why Haru didn't want to leave the prison.)

But then, a meddlesome girl name Katara (who is Sokka's sister, Zuko discovered) liberated the prison against Zuko's wishes. Haru had no choice but to leave, as he didn't want to betray his village. At first, Zuko was heartbroken, but when he strolled through the remains of the great escape, he found Katara's necklace upon the ground.

In an instant, the memory of Sokka's breathtaking face filled Zuko's thoughts, and the cogs in his head began to turn. Katara would be wanting her necklace back, and wherever Katara was, Sokka would be. After clutching the necklace tightly within his hand, Zuko set off again in search of the Avatar (aka Sokka, Since we all know he's just pretending to be searching for Aang as a cover story).

A little while later (as in days later), Zuko was walking around at night alone when he came across Sokka's little sister, Katara, waterbending at a river. Zuko realized that then was the perfect time to kidnap her to lure Sokka-I mean AANG-to him. He stealthily hid in a bush behind her until she was in the middle of a waterbending move, at which point he leapt out of the bush and screamed, "RAWR!" to intimidate Katara. Fortunately for Zuko, Katara was so surprised to find out that someone had been creeping on her that she didn't fight back. Zuko promptly grabbed her and tied her to a tree.

"I will let you free if you bring your brother and the Avatar to me first," he said to her.

"How am I supposed to bring them here when I'm tied to a tree?!" Katara responded. While Zuko was considering this predicament, the man of his dreams himself flew out of the trees. Zuko was so distracted by Sokka's amazing manliness that he forgot to fight back while Sokka rescued Katara. Everyone escaped back into the woods and Zuko was left on his own to sob about the fact that he had lost Sokka yet again.


	3. Chapter 3

One day, the Avatar Gang came across a group of rebels who called themselves the Freedom Fighters (...the hell kind of name is that?). The leader of this posse was a young (and manly) man named Jet. Sokka and his friends were saved by Jet's gang after Sokka made the terrible choice of walking rather than flying. Immediately after being saved, a small relationship started.

However, Jet seemed to show interest in Katara rather than Sokka. This upset the Water Tribe warrior, and he displayed extreme dislike toward Jet to cover up how hurt he was on the inside. Why did Katara always get the good things? It wasn't fair! After awhile of watching his sister fantasize over Jet, Sokka had had enough. He declared that they had to leave for reasons concerning Aang and his Avatar-ness, but he really just wanted to get Katara and Jet away from each other. (Why did _every_ guy like Katara?) But, as Sokka began to storm away, Jet leaned back sexily and said, "That's a shame, Sokka. I had a special mission for you."

Sokka halted upon hearing these words. What could Jet possibly mean? It _was_ night, and soon everyone would be going to bed. At these thoughts, Sokka felt his cheeks flush. Unfortunately for him, Jet clarified that this "special mission" would be taking place in the morning. Nevertheless, Sokka agreed to help anyway.

The next morning during the mission, an old man was walking down the trail and Sokka witnessed something horrible. Jet brutally attacked the elderly man and took all of his possessions. This was when Sokka's crush on the Freedom Fighter melted away. He became disgusted with Jet's irresponsible behavior.

It wasn't long after that when Sokka somehow managed to save an entire town, convince Katara that Jet was insane, and pretty much became the hero of one episode. He was definitely the manliest man of them all. Too bad Zuko wasn't around to witness this extreme manliness.

A few days later, a storm happened. During this storm, Sokka was out working on a fishing boat. The storm got really dangerous, so Aang and Katara took Appa to rescue him. On the way, they passed Zuko's boat being sloshed about by the storm. Zuko saw that Sokka wasn't with them and chose not to chase after them, using his concern over the safety of his crew as an excuse.

You see, just a few moments before, the helmsman of the ship had been about to fall to his death. However, Zuko went up at risk of his own death in order to save him, while being closely followed by another crew member. Zuko grabbed the helmsman and passed him down to this crew member, where the crew member grabbed him in a revealing hug. Zuko smiled down at them, knowing that now he had found someone to whom he could confess his crush on Sokka. This act of bravery on Zuko's part helped convince the crew that it really was for their safety that he was choosing not to chase that Avatar at that point in time.


	4. Chapter 4

A little while after the storm, Sokka and Katara got sick from being out in the cold rain for such an extended period of time. Aang found some shelter for them to stay in, but they weren't well enough to travel. He set out to find them some medicine, but was told by a healer that the only cure was for them to suck on some frozen frogs from a nearby swamp.

While Aang was out collecting these frozen frogs, some archers from the Fire Nation took him down and dragged him off to a prison. Zuko somehow managed to find out that his rival, Zhao, had kidnapped the Avatar using these archers. This was just horrible, because if Aang no longer needed to be caught, then Zuko would no longer have an excuse to chase Sokka all over the world. So, he made a plan.

First, he made a super cool mask out of paper mache. Then, he painted it blue, just like the war paint Sokka had on the first time they met. Having a face like Sokka's made Zuko feel so manly that he was able to get Aang from Zhao with absolutely no trouble at all. But, Zuko knew he couldn't keep Aang. Releasing him back into the wild was necessary so that Zuko could keep his excuse to chase Sokka.

Meanwhile, in the shelter, Sokka was having many dreams and hallucinations. The main one that would haunt him for the rest of his life was a particularly embarrassing dream about one Prince Zuko. Though Sokka wouldn't admit it for months, this was the point when he finally realized that there was a chance he had a small crush on the firebender.

After Aang was released, he collected the frozen frogs and brought them to Sokka and Katara, instructing them to suck on them without letting them know what exactly they were sucking. Mid-suck, Sokka's frog thawed and leaped out of his mouth, disgusting Sokka greatly. In order to try to clean out his mouth (but not really thinking about the proper way in which to do this), Sokka began licking Appa. As soon as he did this, he got a mouth full of fur, and noticed that he had suddenly wished that Zuko had been there to help him clean out his mouth instead.

While walking one day, the teens came across a random guy being attacked by a platypus-bear, but refusing to fight back, claiming a fortune teller told him he wouldn't be harmed. Not believing in such superstition, Aang and Appa chased off the animal. Katara, however, was intrigued by the idea of a fortune teller, so she dragged the others to the nearby town to discover her future.

This caused Sokka to worry quite a bit. Though he didn't truly believe in the unscientificness of fortune telling, he was still afraid that maybe there was some truth to the skill. What if this fortune teller told Katara and Aang about his crush on Zuko? That would not be a good thing. It would be like betraying Aang, since Zuko was always trying to capture him.

Luckily, the fortune teller had no interest in reading Sokka's future, so Sokka didn't have to stress over his secret getting out. Before long, Aang had saved yet another town from fiery doom, and the Avatar gang was off to a new location again.


	5. Chapter 5

One day, Zuko was minding his own business on his godly ship when an ugly creature leapt on board from the docks and tore a huge hole in the metal to capture a stowaway. From what Zuko could see, an intimidating lady whom his uncle became attracted to was sitting on the creature's back, but she and the animal darted away as quickly as they had come. The banished prince was outraged. _No one_ destroyed his ship without paying for it. And so, he set off after the woman, Uncle Iroh coming with to stalk her.

When Zuko found her, she was in a bar playing patty-cake with a beefy man (well, Zuko wasn't sure _what_ they were doing, but that's what it looked like). In order to look manly, Zuko raised his head and strolled over to her side to confront her.

After a dispute (that didn't last long because Zuko was scared of her), the odd woman brought up that her "beast" could follow any scent across the world. This gave Zuko an idea. He pulled Katara's necklace out of his pocket (he has pockets?) and held it up proudly.

"This necklace belongs to a girl who is traveling with the Avatar. The scent will lead us to Sok-I mean, the Avatar. Then I can capture him."

Iroh also offered mounds of gold to the woman, and she finally agreed. After allowing her pet to sniff Katara's necklace, all three of them climbed up onto its back. Iroh sat right behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, a large grin pulling his lips. This, however, made Zuko sad. Just seeing his uncle and the stranger made him long to see Sokka again.

But he was in luck! The beast had finally tracked down Katara! Unfortunately, Aang wasn't with the two Water Tribe members, which completely ruined Zuko's cover story. He had to think fast, since it would be very suspicious if he just kidnapped Sokka after claiming to be after the Avatar all that time. Zuko was extremely lucky in the fact that June had her beast paralyze both teens and put them on its back to chase Aang. Zuko held onto Sokka as they rode away, using the excuse that he didn't want one of their only links to the Avatar to fall and injure himself. Sokka didn't actually seem to mind all that much.

Actually, Sokka enjoyed being held by Zuko very much. You see, while Sokka was sick and having all those..._enlightening_ dreams about his true feelings for Zuko, one of said dreams included Zuko holding him while they rode on a flying unicorn. This experience was strangely similar, ignoring the fact that Sokka didn't have any use of his arms or legs thanks to the beast's paralyzing venom.

Anyway, Zuko held onto Sokka the whole journey back to the nearby town, yet Katara was left to fend for herself on the back of the beast. They finally caught up to the Avatar and Zuko fought him and lost. It was sad. But what Zuko really became depressed about was when the Avatar escaped, he brought Sokka with him!

Leaving the town, Zuko, and the beast behind, the gAang traveled to the Northern Air Temple. They heard rumors of flying people, and wanted to check it out themselves. While they were there, Aang had a vision that Haru (Zuko's ex-boyfriend) and Teo (a manly boy in a manly wheelchair living in the manly temple) would one day fall in love and become a happy couple. Teo was overjoyed to hear about this, and it quickly became his life goal to find this mysterious, manly man so they could fall in manly love. Somewhere in a faraway village, Haru somehow got the feeling that he would meet his true love before the year was up.


	6. Chapter 6

Then, after a full season of filler episodes, the Avatar gang reached the Northern Water Tribe. It was quite an accomplishment. Sokka was getting increasingly sick of everything being about Aang and Katara. Seriously. The only reason they were even at the North Pole was for Aang to learn waterbending (well, Katara wanted to learn too, but the manly people of the tribe were quite sexist at first).

The first day there, as they were riding down the river on Appa, Sokka just happened to see a girl with hair as white as an old lady's drifting by in a small boat. He wasn't sure who she was, but for some reason, he felt attracted to her. It was an odd feeling to have when he already had a crush on a manly man, but it was real. It became Sokka's goal to meet her and truly figure out why he had such feelings toward her.

For once in his life, something went right. At dinner that same day, he happened to see that girl again and discovered that she was a princess. His luck increased when she sat down beside him. A small, incredibly awkward conversation started between them and with that, an idea struck him. Zuko was a prince (well, a banished prince) and this girl, Yue, was a princess. Was the only reason Sokka was attracted to them because they were royalty? Sokka was horrified. _No!_ His feelings for Zuko were real! At least, that's what he continuously tried to tell himself. It was too painful to think that he only liked Zuko because he was a prince.

The Fire Nation soon attacked the Water Tribe. To help the Water Tribe, Aang went into the Spirit World to talk to the moon and ocean spirits in order to ask them to fight the Fire Nation. While he was in the Spirit World, Zuko appeared and stole Aang's body from Katara and Yue. You see, Zuko had stowed away on a Fire Navy ship because he'd heard that Sokka was at the North Pole. He'd gone in search of him, but when he finally found Sokka's sister and friends, Sokka was nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, he didn't notice that until he had already leapt wildly out of his hiding place.

Rather than being humiliated by just turning around and leaving, he decided to stick to his cover story and kidnap Aang. Maybe Katara and the white-haired girl she was with would go fetch Sokka to help with the rescue mission! Zuko thought this manly plan was incredibly amazing, so he put it into action. He easily beat Katara, grabbed Aang, and ran out into the frozen tundra known as the North Pole. It was really cold.

Zuko eventually came across a cave and dragged the Avatar into it with him. He really hoped that Sokka would come along to rescue Aang soon. He was so excited to see such a manly man again!

While Zuko awaited the arrival of his lover, he took the time to randomly rant to Aang about his family (even though Aang definitely couldn't hear him, being in the Spirit World and all). He talked about how his father thought that his sister, Azula, was way more manly than him. As Zuko thought about it, he became increasingly worried about what Sokka thought of him. If his own sister was manlier than him, Sokka probably thought he was a wimp.

Before Zuko could spend his time dwelling even more on these worries, Aang inconveniently returned from the Spirit World. He airbended out of the cave (because he's the Avatar, so he can do stuff like that), and began inching across the snow in a failed attempt to escape. Zuko had a moment of success when he easily captured Aang again, but at the same time, Sokka (and Katara and Yue, but they don't matter) came swooping down on Appa.

Like always, Katara was a bully and used some snow to kill Zuko, but he really didn't die. He was just pretending to be dead. Zuko wanted to see how Sokka would react. When the gAang was situated on Appa's back, Aang suddenly looked at the manly dead body (that wasn't really dead) and said, "We can't just leave him here!"

That was when Sokka made a comment that broke Zuko's heart and made him want to cry...

"Sure we can. Let's go."

But we all know that Sokka was only saying this to hide how he really felt. Plus, Yue was there, and he had to pretend to like her. Nonetheless, Aang carried Zuko up onto Appa's back (Zuko wished Sokka was the one who had carried him), and they returned to the Water Tribe city. Zuko was so upset about what Sokka said that he creeped away, found Zhao, and beat him up. Zhao eventually died...but it was because of some random spirit. The water turned all glowy, sprung up, grabbed Zhao, then drowned him. After that, Zuko returned to his uncle and they left the city. Zuko remained heart-broken.


	7. Chapter 7

Not long after the North Pole invasion, Aang and his friends traveled to an Earth Kingdom military base to get escorted to Omashu, because Aang obviously isn't strong enough to get there safely himself (even though he's the all powerful Avatar, but he just wanted to make it more interesting and wanted some random old men to escort him). However, when they got there, they figured out that the general, Fong, was insane and left after he tried to get Aang into his godly state.

The gAang decided to take a break partway through their traveling so that Aang could get more practice waterbending. Sokka, on the other hand, decided that since Zuko wasn't there, he'd settle with floating on a leaf without any pants on. Also, to be even more sexy, he took his ponytail (I mean, _wolftail_) out and let his hair hang loosely to impress Zuko in case he magically found them and tried to capture Aang. He had to look good all the time... _just in case._

Sokka got excited when they heard some song coming from the forest beside the river. Maybe Zuko had learned to play guitar just to woo him! Instead, a group of hippies emerged from the trees, one man at the front of the group playing his guitar while singing to look sexy. Sokka stumbled off of his gigantic leaf and marched up to the odd man, demanding who he was. Not long after introducing himself as Chong, the hippie examined Sokka's underwear and said, "Nice underwear," in a sultry tone. This made the peasant embarrassed, so he quickly used Momo to shield what was Zuko's property (at least, in Sokka's mind, it belonged to Zuko).

Meanwhile, Zuko, now a fugitive, was stuck in the woods without any food or water. This made him extremely frustrated because, not only did he have no reason to be chasing Aang anymore (to get to Sokka), but his uncle didn't seem at all concerned by this. Zuko ended up yelling at his uncle because of his bad mood, so Iroh ate a poisonous plant in an attempt to kill himself. _This_ caused even more problems for Zuko to deal with.

Okay, back to Sokka... Now that the hippies decided to randomly join the gAang, this delayed their journey to Omashu, which obviously upset Sokka, for he had hopes of seeing Zuko there. Chong made a decision to randomly start singing a song about a "Cave of Two Lovers," and Sokka was convinced he did this just to make him even more angry. The lyrics to the song clearly explained the relationship between Sokka and Zuko, for they were definitely two lovers "forbidden" from one another with a war dividing their people.

The gAang ended up going through the Cave of Two Lovers, went to Omashu, realized it was taken over by the Fire Nation and left for a different destination.


	8. Chapter 8

Awhile after traveling through the Cave of Two Lovers, the gAang finally found an earthbending teacher for Aang: a young girl named Toph Bei Fong. They eventually became acquainted with Zuko's sister, Azula, and her posse. Well, not really acquainted because the three girls were set on killing them, but had failed each time thanks to Toph's superpowers.

Then, they went to a random library in the middle of the desert to find information on the Fire Nation. The group found that there would be an eclipse in the near future. Right after discovering that, the spirit in the library got angry and tried to kill them by sinking the library. Thankfully, _again,_ Toph saved them, but Aang went into a supernatural rage after realizing some dumb "sandbenders" stole Appa for laughs. He was quite angry about this.

After an awful trek through the desert (in which Sokka drank cactus juice and became delirious) they eventually came across more nomads, but these weren't the singing kind-they were the pregnant kind. They told the gAang that there were ferries that would be taking refugees to Ba Sing Se, which was where Appa supposedly was.

Back in Zuko's world, Iroh got over his suicidal tendecies when Zuko bought him a hat with a pink flower on it. The two were onboard a fairy (oops, I mean _ferry_) when none other than Jet (the guy with the logic-defying eyebrows) waltzed up sexily and said, "Howdy, ya'll. My name's Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters, Smellerbee and Longshot." At this moment, he glared angrily at Longshot because he was jealous that Longshot had a super cool hat and he didn't. Thankfully, he was constantly carrying a piece of wheat in his mouth because it helped alleviate the jealousy.

Jet creeped up behind Zuko and struck a sexy pose. He mentioned that the captain of the ship was eating like a fat, happy king. This made Iroh have a nosebleed while picturing all the food. Jet was like, _What the heck?_ but just as he was about to walk away, he noticed how handsome and manly Zuko was and decided to put up with his "old man" of an uncle (who has a food fetish). The two manly men decided to steal the yummy food.

Meanwhile, the gAang was working to get tickets onto the ferry. The lady in charge was being a buttmunch, and not letting the kids on without passports. Luckily, Toph was there once again to save the day.

Unfortunately, as soon as they finally got their tickets, a bully punched Sokka. Sokka was really scared. He almost wet his pants. But then, the manly guard kissed him. At first, he hoped it was Zuko, but then he realized it was actually Suki.

Once they had been fully reaquainted with the Kyoshi warrior, they were approached yet again by the pregnant nomads. Once again, they had a horribly sad sob-story, and Aang felt obligated to help out. They claimed to have gotten their tickets stolen. The rude lady at the front desk refused to let the nomads have tickets without passports, so Aang, instead of being logical and just giving them his tickets without asking the lady for permission, instead decided that the better plan would be to escort the refugees through the deadly Serpent's Pass.

Suki decided to accompany them, much to Sokka's disappointment. He was tired of having to act like he loved her when he really loved Zuko.

On the ship where Zuko was, he and Jet were carrying out their plan to steal food from the captain's chamber. While Jet collected several meat carcasses, Zuko stacked some bowls of rice, and tied them with a ribbon. He was so skilled that he didn't even have to tie the ribbon; he just pulled it over the bowls and it was magically in a knot already. Jet saw this, and smirked at Zuko's talented hands. Zuko looked strangely at him, not liking his flirtatious manner. Didn't this boy know that Zuko's heart already belonged to Sokka?!

Smellerbee soon alerted the boys that a guard was approaching the kitchen. Longshot shot an arrow up to the platform for the teens to use to escape sexily with their food.

Later that night, Sokka and the others decided to take a break to sleep. Sokka was staring at the moon, thinking about Zuko and wondering where he was when Suki came by and broke the nice silence.

They had a conversation about how Suki was not happy with Sokka being overprotective, but Sokka didn't really listen. He was too busy daydreaming about Zuko. After a point though, Suki tried to kiss Sokka, but he turned his head and said, "I can't." He didn't feel comfortable kissing a girl while he was thinking about the banished prince. He walked away and left Suki alone staring after him.

After having to escape a monstrous serpent (hence the name of the actual pass), the gAang made it to safety. Sokka was so ecstatic that he had made it through alive, that he couldn't stop his happiness from keeping him from kissing Suki. Throughout the entire kiss, he pretended it was Zuko he was kissing and that Zuko was overjoyed that Sokka had made it through safely and unharmed.

Before this though, the pregnant nomad decided to become a maternal nomad and gave birth to a baby named Hope. It was pretty lucky she waited to go into labor until after they had gotten through the Serpent's Pass, since there had been a message on a pillar right at the beginning that said "Abandon Hope." Knowing nomads, they would have taken this literally and left their poor baby to fend for herself.

Also before the kiss, the gAang saw off Aang, who decided to go ahead of them in order to find Appa faster. No one cared. Except for Katara, who cared just a tiny bit. Anyway, so Sokka and Suki kissed. Then, Suki left for the ferry port again, which made Sokka really relieved. He was getting embarrassed about the fact that he couldn't seem to kiss Suki unless he was pretending she was Zuko.

Meanwhile, Aang reached the outer wall of Ba Sing Se, and was horrified to see a monstrous drill making its way to penetrate the city. He was not a happy camper.


	9. Chapter 9

As the rest of the gAang (aside from Aang, since he's the only one who can fly) made their way toward Ba Sing Se, they were astonished to see the Avatar gliding back down to them. Once he had landed gracefully, he informed them that a gigantic drill was about to penetrate the city. And no, the drill is not a euphemism for naughty things. This is a children's cartoon. Get your minds out of the gutter.

Meanwhile, inside this very suggestive drill, Ty Lee was commenting on the muscles of the muscle-y earthbenders that were attacking the drill from the outside. Azula glanced at her with jealousy, but decided to ignore the comment and sent Mai and Ty Lee out to attack the muscular manly men. She was about to have a jealous breakdown and cry, so she didn't want them to be there to see it. Mai acted as if she was happy to be fighting the earthbenders, but she was actually eager to spend time with Ty Lee.

Aang and Toph used their epic earthbending skills to carry the rest of the gAang up onto the impenetrable wall. Then, the entire group saw the suggestiveness of that drill and all gasped in horror. "What will our younger viewers think?" Katara whined. She only ever thought of the status of their show. There was no way she was going to let the show get cancelled for inappropriate content. She had yet to see the Boiling Rock episodes, though.

Anyway, Ty Lee and Mai took down all of the muscle-y earthbenders using teamwork and love. Azula, who was observing while she was bawling, got even more upset and cried even more... if that's possible.

_Meanwhile,_ Zuko and his uncle were preparing to leave on one of the ferries. After they had shown the creepy lady (who Iroh hit on) their passports, they went to find a place to sit. Little did they know that Jet was still following them and watching their every move. Well, maybe just Zuko's.

Then, Sokka had an epiphany and came up with the idea to destroy the drill from the inside. He was quite happy with how smart the plan was. It was ingenious. Even the rest of the gAang thought it was awesome, and that was saying something. When they got to the drill, Toph created a tunnel into the ground that would lead them up into the drill. "Everybody into the hole!" she exclaimed. We'll leave it up to our viewers to figure out what she _really_ meant by that.

Once Zuko and Iroh had found a place to sit, Iroh immediately got himself some tea, but was displeased about how cold it was. Zuko was unamused. That was when Jet randomly teleported right beside him. He was just... _there_ suddenly... and he asked the firebender if he could talk to him for a second. Zuko let out a reluctant sigh and followed the creeper out of earshot from his uncle.

"You and I have a much better chance of making it in the city if we stick together," Jet seduced. "You wanna join the Freedom Fighters?"

Zuko knew that Jet was hitting on him and he didn't like it. So, he calmly replied with, "I wouldn't fit in with your gang" and walked away as quickly as possible. Jet didn't like that, so he immediately looked for something to get Zuko arrested. Just his luck: Iroh had firebended the freezing tea and it was now visibly steaming.

After some intense destroying, the gAang successfully stopped the drill from completely penetrating the wall. The city was still a virgin! They were ecstatic. Now, Aang could finally get back to finding Appa.


	10. Chapter 10

When the gAang had finally made it into Ba Sing Se, they met a creepy woman named Joo Dee who would be escorting them throughout the gigantic city. She was probably the most annoying person any of them had ever met, for each time that Sokka tried to bring up that they needed to talk to the king, she'd ignore it. As Joo Dee was taking them on a bothersome tour that started at the lower ring of the city, Sokka had a funny feeling that Zuko was nearby, for he suddenly was extremely excited. However, he did not bring this up to the rest of the Avatar Gang because he figured they'd suddenly start beating up everyone in fear that Zuko was disguised (though it was kind of hard for Zuko to be disguised with his manly scar and all).

As Zuko was strolling down the street beside his uncle, he, too, had a feeling that Sokka was nearby. Before he could even think up any way of finding the watertribe warrior, his uncle held up a pot of flowers and implied that he wanted Zuko to find a girlfriend. This was not at all pleasing to the Fire Nation prince, nor was the fact that they'd be working later that day. Zuko also felt there was danger afoot. Little did he know that Jet was just a few yards behind him, staring at his butt. He was discussing with his friends, Longshot and Smellerbee, about how he was going to prove Zuko and Iroh were firebenders and turn them into the police, regardless of his feelings for the young prince.

Later on that day, Jet was standing suspiciously outside the window of the tea shop that Zuko and Iroh had secured jobs at. When he felt that no one was watching him, he leaned over to peer in through the window and once again had to refrain from having a nosebleed after catching a glimpse of Zuko's butt.

That night, after sneaking into Zuko and Iroh's apartment and stealing their spark rocks, Jet spied on them from the roof of a building across from theirs. Zuko was sprawled out sexily on top of his bed while complaining to his uncle about the fact that he didn't want any more tea. Even though Jet was content with just staring at Zuko, he brought his attention to Iroh, hoping to catch him firebending. Unfortunately for Jet, Iroh was smart enough to borrow some spark rocks from a neighbor, and therefore didn't have to firebend. Jet was highly disappointed.

The next night, Jet was _again_ creeping outside the tea shop, still trying to find proof that Zuko and Iroh were firebenders. Longshot and Smellerbee tried to talk him out of it, but his love for Zuko was too strong. He wanted Zuko and Iroh to be punished now that Zuko had hurt his feelings. If Jet couldn't have Zuko, then no one could.

Jet burst into the tea shop and yelled out, "I'm tired of waiting! Zuko, I love you!"  
He then produced a flower from behind his back and thrust it out in front of him while Zuko just stared at him in bewilderment. When Zuko refused to love him back, Jet decided to go back to his original plan of getting them arrested and pulled out his hook swords threateningly. Everyone else in the shop wasn't at all convinced that they were firebenders, so Jet was on his own with this.

Zuko stepped forward and accepted the challenge, which led to a huge duel breaking out between the two. When their battle led them outside, Jet was pleased at one point to be back-to-back with the man he loved, for it was the closest he had been to Zuko yet. However, his happiness faded instantly when members of the Dai Li came and took him away, despite his explanation that Zuko was from the Fire Nation. Then he was brainwashed and no longer had any clue who Zuko was, which was probably for the better.

Oh, and by the way, while all this was happening, the gAang saw the Earth King, but were unable to talk to him. Instead, they were threatened by the head of the Dai Li, Long Feng, and were forced to give up their attempts for that night.

A few days later, since the gAang had a ton of free time thanks to the fact that they believed the threats made by Long Feng would be carried out should they disobey his orders, they decided to explore the city separately. Katara and Toph went to get makeovers, Aang helped save the local zoo, Iroh completed a bunch of good deeds around town, and Momo had an adventure looking for Appa.

Sokka, on the other hand, used his free time to wander aimlessly around the city, looking about wherever he went for Zuko's familiar face. He still had that eerie feeling that the Fire Nation prince was somewhere nearby. Though he never did manage to find Zuko, Sokka did have quite a fun time reciting haikus in a poetry club with a lot of nice young ladies. He did regret very much that he was unable to find Zuko, but he kept his hopes up that he would come across the firebender sometime soon.

Zuko, meanwhile, was worried about a suspicious customer who was constantly in the tea shop. Fearing that this customer was onto the fact that he and his uncle were from the Fire Nation, he confided his worries to his uncle, only to get the unsatisfactory response that Iroh thought the girl had a crush on him. Zuko was not very happy to hear about this, since it meant that Iroh would probably force him to go out on a date with the girl, which felt to him like he was betraying Sokka.

He was right in his suspicions that Iroh would make him go on a date with the girl, named Jin, and he was shoved out in front of the shop promptly at sundown to wait for her. At the restaurant they ate at, the waiter referred to Jin as Zuko's girlfriend. Zuko really didn't like this insinuation, and yelled rudely at the waiter. He felt like somehow, Sokka would find out about someone calling Jin Zuko's girlfriend and feel hurt and sad, even though Zuko didn't even know that Sokka liked him.

As the date went on, Jin brought Zuko to the Firelight Fountain, but the lamps surrounding the pool weren't lit. Zuko felt sort of bad for the poor girl. She had been trying so hard to help him have a good time, but Zuko just hadn't been a very good sport about it; he couldn't seem to stop thinking about Sokka no matter what he did. So, he decided to use his firebending skills to light all the lamps around the fountain.

After this task was complete, Jin was so surprised and touched that she kissed Zuko. Zuko responded to the kiss at first, imagining that it was Sokka's lips he was kissing rather than Jin's, but it didn't take him long to realize that doing that was hurting Jin unnecessarily. He broke away from the girl, apologizing for his mistake.

"What's wrong?" Jin asked, shocked at Zuko's rudeness.

"It's complicated," Zuko responded lowly, mind stuck on Sokka. He ran away from Jin and back to his and Iroh's apartment. Zuko couldn't seem to stop thinking about Sokka for the rest of the night, imagining that he had been on the date with Sokka instead of with Jin.


	11. Chapter 11

After failing at haikus, Sokka decided that he wanted to try at being an artist. So, he began to make posters concerning Appa being MIA. He was so proud of himself until Aang came and rained on his happiness by showing him professional drawings someone made of Appa. The gAang decided to hang those up around the city instead since Sokka's art didn't look very much like Appa at all.

Meanwhile, Iroh accepted an offer of owning his own tea shop in the upper ring, and this depressed Zuko. He hadn't seen Sokka in so long, and if they moved to the upper ring, there would be no hope at all. The banished prince decided to be emo and stepped outside for a bit to sulk. Then, as Aang was gliding overhead, throwing out posters, one coincidentally landed in Zuko's outstretched hands. He glanced over the poster with confusion, but then sudden hope returned. If Appa was in the city, that meant that Aang was in the city. If Aang was in the city, then there was a 99.9% chance that Sokka was there as well. Zuko was overjoyed and gave up his emoness for that brief moment. He climbed up onto the roof of the tea shop and shouted his joy out into the city.

When he walked back inside, he revealed the poster to his uncle, yet contained his extreme happiness for that moment to keep his manliness. Iroh suggested that he get a life. Zuko said that he wanted more in life than just tea, which astonished Iroh. He told his uncle that instead, he wanted to follow his destiny. Luckily, Iroh didn't understand that Zuko actually meant that he wanted to find Sokka. After their brief discussion, Zuko stomped out of the room and left his uncle to continue thinking of names for their new tea shop.

As the gAang posted posters around the city, Katara happened to run into Jet, who was creeping, as usual, behind her. She was immediately outraged to see him because he broke her heart. Because of this, the waterbender waterbended at him and trapped him in an alley. She failed at hurting him in any way, and instead took her anger out on the wall by throwing icicles at it. That was when the rest of the gAang came up behind her.

Sokka asked his sister what was going on even though he could clearly see Jet right in front of them. She mentioned that they couldn't trust Jet, which made Sokka say, "We don't even know why he's here!" It was clear that Sokka still harbored a little crush on the teenager.

After a heated discussion, the gAang decided to trust Jet, but wouldn't let him out of their sight. Jet led them to the barn where he suspected Appa had been kept. Then a random old man told them that Appa wasn't there because they obviously couldn't figure that out themselves. That put them back to square one.

As they were walking down the street, Smellerbee and Longshot came around a corner and hugged Jet. He was befuddled. Since Jet had been brainwashed, he had no recollection of the Dai Li that had captured him.

That night, Zuko went back to his epic, manly ways by wearing his manly blue mask and being the manly Blue Spirit. He was so manly.

Anyway, with the help of Katara and the rest of the gAang, Jet was capable of remembering all that had happened to him. He even remembered Zuko, his secret love that wasn't actually that secret. But, more importantly, according to the rest of the gAang, he remembered where the Dai Li took him.

They went to Lake Laogai in attempt to find Appa, but instead ran into the Dai Li and Long Feng. Jet died. It was pretty anticlimactic. But, in his last breaths, he confessed to Smellerbee and Longshot his love for Zuko.

Zuko, meanwhile, found Appa, but decided to set him free because he thought Sokka would appreciate that more than stealing the bison. He also gave up his manly mask, which made a lot of viewers very sad.

Aang and Appa reunited. It was happy.


	12. Chapter 12

One day, Aang and the others decided to break into the palace to tell on Long Feng for being a big, fat meanie. They had to take out a bunch of earthbenders, but obviously, the four kids were a lot more skilled than a bunch of adults trained to guard the king, so it was very simple to do. In fact, Aang began to wonder why they hadn't tried brute force in the first place.

Once in the palace, they told on Long Feng to the Earth King. The Earth King was very disappointed, so he put the leader of the Dai Li into a time-out at the local jail. Then, the king admitted he had been hoarding letters sent to the gAang and returned said letters. Because of the content of the letters, Toph decided to go home, Sokka decided to go visit his dad, and Aang decided to go to a nearby Air Temple to speak to a random guru.

Katara, however, stayed in the city. While walking one day, she noticed Zuko working at a nearby tea shop. She fainted out of fear and shock like the girly girl she is. When Katara woke up, she was in the underground catacombs of the city and somehow knew that it was Azula in a Kyoshi warrior disguise who put her there.

Meanwhile, Aang dropped off Sokka to see his father and set off to talk to the random guru that had attached a letter to Appa's horn. Sokka was incredibly nervous about seeing Hakoda. He feared that he was a disappointment in some way, shape, or form. Little did he know that in the future, he'd be even more nervous about confessing a certain love for a manly man... Fortunately, his father was incredibly happy to see him and showed him how to make stink bombs like any dad would do.

When Toph went to reunite with her parents, she instead ran into trouble. It was a trap. The two guys that her parents had paid to kidnap her (weird, I know) trapped her in a metal cage and began to take her back to her home on a cart. The entire way, both men argued like a married couple. It was awkward for the "innocent" mind of the Blind Bandit.

So, Aang finally made it to the Air Temple where an incredibly ancient guru was waiting patiently in meditation (well, at first, Aang thought he was dead). The weird old man forced Aang to drink some banana-onion juice for reasons even the creators of the show didn't know. It just seemed like the best option. Then, the guru educated Aang on chakras.

Meanwhile, back on the cart where Toph was being held captive inside a metal coffin, Xin Fu and Master Yu were still arguing like an old married couple. It was starting to annoy Toph to where she began experimenting with the metal of the box and trying to bend it. Her previous attempt to escape (by asking to use the bathroom) didn't work, even though she was telling the truth and really had to. Finally, when night came (and Xin Fu and Yu were _still_ arguing about nonsense), Toph broke free of the coffin. When the two older men walked around to the back of the cart to see what had happened, she pushed them both into her previous cage and trapped them inside before running away. "I'm going to be stuck in here forever with you, aren't I?" Xin Fu grumbled, even though, in reality, he was quite pleased. Yu was happy too, but he didn't comment.

After Aang had almost made it through all of the chakras, he decided at the last minute that he didn't want to be a real boy. He had a vision that Katara was in trouble, so he ditched the guru to go save her. Aang also picked up Sokka on the way even though Sokka liked making stink bombs with his dad. Then, on their way to the city, they saw Toph galloping in the same direction and saved her the trouble of using up all her energy by giving her a ride too.

Back at the palace, Zuko and Iroh were under the impression that they'd be serving tea to the Earth King. Much to their surprise, they were assaulted by Azula and the Dai Li. Iroh ran away like a baby, but Zuko was captured and shoved under the city with Katara. I guess Azula is a Zutara fan.

Iroh found Toph, Aang and Sokka and whined to them about his missing nephew. Sokka got really excited about having a chance to see Zuko, but he of course covered it up with insults instead. Even though Sokka wanted to go with Aang to free Zuko (and Katara), he and Toph were given the duty to tell the king about the coup. They were astonished that it was Azula, not the Earth King, who they found at the palace. Unfortunately, they were captured, which always seems to be the case.

When Aang and Iroh found where Zuko and Katara were being held, the scene they walked on was quite suggestive. Aang immediately got angry about seeing Katara caressing Zuko's face, but was happy when she hugged him. He gave Zuko a glare that pretty much said, "back off." Iroh then hugged Zuko, then told Aang and Katara to go ahead. He had some matters to discuss with his nephew.

Toph broke Sokka, herself, and the Earth King out of the jail, then the three of them went to confront Ty Lee and Mai. The Earth King really wanted his bear back. But, Mai and Ty Lee didn't even put up a fight. It wasn't worth it, and if the bear was gone, they'd be completely alone, so they could do more scandalous things.

Meanwhile, Iroh was discussing Zuko's destiny with him. In the middle of the intense discussion, Azula decided to be a brat and break it up by trapping Iroh in a cluster of crystals. She gave Zuko the decision to join her, or Iroh's side. That was when Iroh said something that really got Zuko to thinking. "Look into your heart and see what it is you truly want." Zuko closed his eyes and immediately imagined Sokka. He wanted Sokka more than anything.

Azula left her brother to decide, then went to assault Katara and Aang along with the Dai Li. Partway through the battle, Zuko came running in with the initial idea of joining the gAang. However, when he saw that Sokka wasn't among them, he quickly changed to Azula's side to look incredibly manly in case Sokka came around.

Azula electrocuted Aang when he was in the Avatar State, then laughed. Iroh cried and was taken under arrest for being fat. The rest of the gAang flew away on Appa while Katara used some spirit water to heal Aang. It wasn't a very happy ending to a season. All the Zutara fans were sobbing in their rooms.


	13. Chapter 13

Aang died.  
The End.

Just kidding!  
He miraculously survived by the power of magic fish water and also managed to grow some hair to cover up his arrow tattoo. Kind of... But anyway, after being unconscious for numerous weeks, he woke up to find himself on a Fire Nation ship. Aang flipped out and started destroying things, then became very angsty when he realized that the entire world thought he was dead. It made him sad. Not only did the world think he was dead, but all of his friends were telling him that it was a _good_ thing; he was their _secret_ weapon. Aang didn't like being used like that.

Zuko became a hero for choosing Azula's side and was welcomed back home by his fail of a father. He started dating Mai because he was going through denial. Meanwhile, Sokka somehow felt lonelier and decided that it was because Zuko was taken. He just _knew._ In order to win Zuko back, Sokka decided it was time for him to finally learn how to fight. Since the gAang had recently decided to infiltrate the Fire Nation by pretending to be Fire Nation citizens, he thought it would be convenient to train with a sword master from the Fire Nation.

Throughout his training, Sokka was constantly thinking of Zuko. In fact, the thought of him was the one thing that kept him going through his master's strictness. He knew that the only way to catch the Fire Nation prince's attention was to be an excellent fighter-to be the manliest man of them all. Through vigorous training, Sokka finally managed to pass as someone capable of handling a sword and he was ready to show Zuko just how amazing he was (ten times more amazing than some chick named Mai).

Meanwhile, Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee all decided to go to their house on Ember Island to enjoy the beach, since they obviously had nothing better to do. In all honesty, Zuko didn't even _want_ to go, but apparently girls have a thing for beaches... and to make it better, he was stuck with _three_ of these girls. Oh, terrific.

Throughout their vacation time, Zuko was always rather awkward with Mai. The time he spent with her was the kind of time he wished he was spending with Sokka. So, there were certain points in which Zuko deliberately did things to try to get her to break up with him. He even went as far as dropping ice cream on one of her skirts, but nothing would work. He decided to just deal with her for the time being-at least until he got to see Sokka again.

Zuko was challenged to play volleyball with some other Fire Nation teenagers, and he did. He figured that maybe sometime in his life, Sokka may challenge him to volleyball, and he wanted to get some good practice in so that he would be able to play well when Sokka was watching. Before he actually went to play though, he found it necessary to tear off his shirt in a very dramatic fashion, just on the off chance that Sokka was somehow at that beach watching him from behind a giant rock. Everyone on the beach immediately had a nosebleed.

Watching the four teens play volleyball interested some guys who were also hanging out on the beach. They ended up inviting Mai and Ty Lee to a party, which Azula then forcibly invited herself and her brother to as well, against the wishes of the two boys hosting the party.

At the party, Ty Lee was being constantly creeped on by a large group of boys, who she then knocked unconscious thanks to feeling violated by them. She went to Azula for advice, which was probably a bad idea. Azula was very jealous of the fact that Ty Lee was giving all those boys her attention rather than paying attention to Azula herself, so she was a bit harsh when telling Ty Lee her opinions on the matter. So harsh, in fact, that Ty Lee began crying. Azula felt bad right away, and grabbed Ty Lee's hands, apologizing for her jealousy. Unfortunately, she didn't specify exactly _who_ she was jealous of, so Ty Lee assumed that Azula wished she were Ty Lee rather than one of the boys whom Ty Lee gave attention. However, to Azula's surprise, this made Ty Lee compliment her, which then made Azula feel a lot better about herself, but Ty Lee also then gave her advice on how to get boys to like her. Azula only cared about getting Ty Lee to like her, but she played along anyway, because she finally had Ty Lee's attention.

While everyone else was partying, Zuko and Mai were obviously emo-ing off on their own. Mai constantly complained to Zuko about being bored and hungry, but since he obviously didn't care, he didn't do anything to help. In fact, Mai had to literally tell him to go get her food for him to actually do something, and even then, he really didn't want to. Zuko would do _anything_ for Sokka, but for Mai... he honestly didn't care. It was complete luck that their "relationship" was working at all.

When Zuko had actually retrieved the food for her, some jerk at the party managed to run into him and knock the plate of food out of his hand. This pissed him off immensely, for he had already gone through all of the trouble to get the food. However, to make matters even worse, when Zuko turned to look at Mai he saw another manly man who resembled Sokka flirting with his "girlfriend." Zuko was outraged by this. How _dare_ his future boyfriend flirt with a girl? He hurriedly shoved him away only to realize that the boy he thought was Sokka was actually just another boy from the Fire Nation. Zuko had been hallucinating.

After getting kicked out of the party for getting violent, Zuko stormed off and ranted to the ocean about love. It was awhile before Azula found him. Then, they decided to burn all of their childhood memories in a campfire the three girls had prepared. Mai, Ty Lee, and Azula went off into their own rants about their lives (well, Azula mainly talked about how perfect she was, but her one complaint was her mother thinking of her as a monster... I wonder _why_...). This brought Zuko to think about his own problems and he became very conflicted. The three girls pestered him about why he was angry all the time and who he was angry with, and this finally caused him to snap.

The firebender threw his fists down toward the campfire, causing the flames to shoot up toward the sky before yelling, "I'm angry at myself!" He had betrayed the boy he loved and was living the crappiest life ever. And it was all his fault. The girls didn't understand, of course, for they had no idea he had a crush on a beautiful, manly Water Tribe boy. They just figured Zuko was extremely confused-he _is_ a rather conflicted boy.

Then Zuko got back together with Mai to keep his cover story.


	14. Chapter 14

Awhile later, after many other things happened (including such events as Toph getting arrested, the gAang meeting a creepy old woman who liked killing, and Aang failing a math test), it was time to prepare to invade the Fire Nation. Sokka was nervous for several reasons. First of all, his old pal Haru had grown a mustache. He was really scared that when Zuko saw this addition of facial hair, he would fall for Haru and forget that Sokka even existed. Sokka would've grown a mustache himself, but had not known he'd have Haru there for competition.

Meanwhile, Zuko practiced calligraphy while his Uncle Iroh worked out in a prison cell so that he could properly flirt with the guard.

Aang kissed Katara before flying off to take on the Fire Nation. Sokka witnessed this, and was so jealous of the fact that Katara could kiss someone but he didn't have Zuko there with him to kiss that he yelled at Katara for being slow and annoying. During this event, unknown to Sokka, Zuko had left the letter on which he had been practicing his calligraphy on Mai's bed. The letter he had written was breaking up with his cover story of a girlfriend, explaining to her in no uncertain terms that he had fallen in love with one of the Water Tribe siblings traveling with the Avatar. He would leave it up to Mai to decide which one it was.

The war began, and the Fire Nation clearly had the advantage, despite the magnificent (read: meager) "army" the gAang and Hakoda had managed to assemble over the past few hours. Zuko was hiding away during all this, talking to a portrait of his long-lost mom. He let her know that now, he was on his way to set things right and that he was sorry for all his past mistakes. He hoped that the spirit of his mother, wherever she was, understood his love for the Water Tribe warrior and would offer him her support and love.

As Zuko left the room to join forces with Aang (and Sokka) once and for all, Sokka offered to take Hakoda's place as leader of the army after Hakoda sustained an untimely injury. Katara and Hakoda thought that Sokka was just being brave and doing what he thought was right, but deep in Sokka's heart, he knew that the only reason he dared lead such an army was because he hoped that Zuko may spot him and be impressed by the amount of manliness necessary to do such a thing.

Aang had been sent ahead to take on the Fire Lord while the army fought the generic Fire Nation fighters, but unfortunately, Ozai had just begun a game of hide-and-seek with Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee. Ozai happened to be the hide-and-seek champion of the Fire Nation, so Aang wasn't very hopeful about finding him. However, Sokka and Toph also were hide-and-seek champions of their respective elemental cities (tribe and kingdom), and offered their help to Aang. Sokka was able to determine the most likely place that Ozai would be (underground) and Toph knew she could use her powerful feet to find a place under the ground that was big enough for a Fire Lord.

Toph, Sokka, and Aang ran through the underground cave as fast as their feet could carry them. Toph and Aang were determined to beat the Fire Lord at his own game, but Sokka was simply hoping that Zuko was at the end of their path. Luckily for him, Toph was able to quickly and efficiently navigate the tunnel and get them through a metal door blocking their way. Sokka's emotions were running so wild from the fact that he was greatly anticipating seeing his love again, that he couldn't help but express love for Toph in Zuko's place. Toph secretly enjoyed this quite a bit, but couldn't let her tough, manly front drop.

Finally, the kids reached the end of the tunnel. They were all disappointed, however. Azula was at the end of the tunnel. Aang couldn't believe he wouldn't get to face Ozai in battle. Sokka couldn't believe he wouldn't get to confess his love to Zuko. Toph couldn't believe that Ozai had beat her in hide-and-seek.

Zuko, on the other hand, had easily located his father and admitted that he was ready to tell him the truth. After confessing many other things regarding his past lies, he blurted out that he was in love with Sokka, then ran like a fairy ballerina troll out of the room while his father looked on in shock.

Azula decided, however, to waste the rest of the eclipse by distracting the three who had found her. Sokka saw through this immediately, but as soon as he began leading away Toph and Aang, Azula brought up the fact that one of her prisoners kept mentioning him. For some reason, even though Azula kept using feminine pronouns and referring to the prisoner by the name "Suki," Sokka became convinced that she was talking about Zuko and that Azula had been keeping her own brother-Sokka's love-prisoner! Enraged, Sokka began attacking Azula, effectively getting distracted himself so that he and the others could no longer chase after Zuko or Ozai.

Azula distracted them so long that the eclipse ended while Sokka was still screaming in her face to tell him where his beloved was being kept. So, everyone left deciding that since they no longer had the advantage, it wasn't worth taking on Ozai at that point in time. Hakoda sent all the kids away on Appa to make sure they would safely survive, while everyone left behind was captured by the Fire Nation and taken to various prisons around the surrounding islands.

Little did Sokka know, as he was flying away on Appa with Aang, Katara, Toph, Haru, Teo, and The Duke, Zuko was just a few miles behind them in a war balloon, keeping tabs on where the gAang was going, carefully planning on how he was going to approach them in the near future. Zuko was sure now on what he had to do-in order to gain Sokka's trust and love, he was going to have to offer his own skills up to the Avatar. He was going to have to teach Aang how to fire bend.


	15. Chapter 15

Eventually, everyone reached the Western Air Temple. Haru immediately suggested that they go find some secret rooms in the temple, and Teo was all for this idea. But then The Duke decided to come along with them. Unfortunately, they knew that their friends had to discuss something Avatar-ish, so they allowed the younger child to accompany them on their adventure further into the temple.

Zuko, on the other hand, had set up a small camp in the forest nearby, and had found a new friend-a fancy, manly frog. Zuko was happily using this fancy, manly frog to practice his "please accept me as your lover, Sokka (and I guess can I teach Aang firebending too to atone for my sins)" speech. The fancy, manly frog, however, was unimpressed and quickly hopped away.

Soon after this occurred, Zuko finally got up the nerve to approach the gAang, who just so happened to be arguing about how Aang was going to learn firebending. Of course, Sokka had a teacher in mind (Zuko, obviously), but was too self-conscious to bring up that thought to Katara, Toph, and Aang. He was pretty sure they would all work together to smack him off the cliffside if he were to suggest something so vile.

Anyway, Zuko approached the gAang, and as both Zuko and Sokka had predicted, Aang, Katara, and Toph were immediately ready to fight. Sokka was a bit more reserved, but he figured after a few moments' hesitation that he should probably reach for his boomerang as well, lest Katara suspect something scandalous.

As Zuko began his "I'm a good guy now" speech, Appa decided it would be prudent to lick him. After tasting the Fire Nation prince a few times, Appa turned to Aang and said, "Seems legit." Of course, since he roared this, no one understood him and unfortunately, still seemed to be under the impression that Zuko was lying.

Sokka badly wanted to accept Zuko into the group. However, as stated earlier, he also knew that the other three wanted nothing to do with his love. Being the coward that he is, Sokka cared more about self preservation than getting what both he and Zuko wanted, so he heavily questioned Zuko's intentions. This broke Zuko's heart as he had to further explain himself without giving away the true reasons behind him chasing the group all over the world.

Katara greatly fought the idea of Zuko joining them. Sokka was pretty positive that Katara was onto his feelings, so he quickly backed up absolutely everything that she said. However, through all this, Appa continued licking Zuko, trying his very hardest to let the gAang know that Zuko was truly good now, and Toph, with her magical ability to understand the speech of animals, relayed this to the rest of the group.

Sokka was still trying to keep Katara on his good side though, and worked to explain this away by saying that Zuko likely covered himself in honey so that Appa would lick him. This statement backfired quite a bit on Sokka though, since immediately after saying it, both Sokka and Zuko began blushing heavily, each with the image of Sokka licking a honey-covered Zuko filling their heads.

Aang was the final decision maker on the situation. To Sokka's dismay, Aang's response was a resounding "no." Apparently, Zuko's good intentions did not make up for his mistakes of the past. For a moment, Zuko felt as if he were about to cry. Not only was he completely and totally rejected by the entire group, but Sokka hadn't said so much as one good word toward him. In fact, Sokka seemed to be fighting harder than both Aang and Toph to keep him _out_ of the group.

"Well, if you won't accept me as your friend," Zuko tried as he held back his manly tears of manliness, "maybe you'll take me as your prisoner."

"NO," Katara yelled, beginning to fight. Sokka though, considered it. If Zuko were a prisoner, he'd be able to get to know the Fire Nation prince a lot better without the risk of the boy turning on him and killing everybody. The lack of death was definitely a plus.

After being knocked aside by Katara's waterbending attack, Zuko realized that he would never be accepted. Even though it appeared as if Sokka was walking forward to help him up, as soon as the ponytailed boy had realized that Katara would not like his helpfulness, he had hesitated and Zuko was left to his own devices. Soaking wet and still close to tears, Zuko finally pushed himself up and trotted away back to his camp. Once there, he sat in a tent and bawled for hours.

Zuko cried himself to sleep, but was rudely awoken by what he perceived to be a serial killer. Quickly, he firebended toward the sounds of the intruder in order to defend himself. As soon as he heard the screams of pain though, he knew that he had made a horrible mistake.

"You burned my feet!"

Of _course_ it was Toph that had come to visit. The only person in the group who was unable to defend herself from a surprise firebending attack such as that, thanks to her blindness. With her scarred feet, Toph began crawling away, chucking boulders randomly back in Zuko's direction as he desperately tried to apologize and help her. It was no use though...Toph got away, and Zuko had to go back and sob himself to sleep once more.

The gAang was concerned the next morning about the whereabouts of Toph. She had been unable to make it back to the temple in a timely manner, thanks to the fact that she was being forced to crawl all the way there. Once she arrived though, she admitted to the group that she had gone to visit Zuko the night before, and Sokka couldn't help but let out a whine of complaint. He couldn't believe that Toph was moving in on his man! At the very least, she should've let him accompany her on her visit, but no, that had been too much to ask, apparently.

After thinking this though, Sokka realized he was being unfair...Obviously, Toph was under the impression that Sokka hated Zuko just like everybody else. Either way, Sokka vowed to keep a close eye on Toph's and Zuko's interactions from then on in order to make sure that neither of them were acting anything more than friendly toward the other. There was no way Sokka was going to lose the manly prince to anybody!

While Katara worked on healing Toph's feet, Sokka came to the conclusion that Zuko was too dangerous to be left out in the woods by himself, and voiced this opinion right away. Of course, Sokka wasn't serious...He was simply using this unfortunate event to his advantage, hoping that Katara and Aang would finally give permission to take Zuko as a prisoner so that Sokka could work on getting to know him better and making the prince fall in love with him. Luckily for Sokka, everyone agreed with him.

Then...Combustion Man arrived on the scene! While he was brutally attacking the gAang, Zuko arrived, swinging in on a vine like a REAL MAN. Sokka saw this, and immediately had to hide a massive nosebleed.

Needless to say, the fight between Combustion Man, the gAang, and Zuko was pretty epic, but the best part was the outcome. Both Sokka and Zuko finally got what they had been hoping for from the very beginning-Zuko was able to join the group. But not before Sokka got a chance to show off some manly skills of his own. He showed Zuko just how awesome he was with his boomerang, and while Zuko was fending off a massive nosebleed himself, Combustion Man died. _Then_ Zuko joined the group.

Sokka was the one to show Zuko to his new room. Though it was an awkward walk for both of them (since neither were aware of the other's feelings), they both enjoyed it immensely. The fact that they were now on speaking terms and would even be staying in rooms right near each other for the next few weeks gave them both hope. As they walked, they began formulating their own plans to win the other boy's heart.

AND THEY ALL LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. At least, they did until Zuko realized that he had somehow lost his ability to firebend and decided that he and Aang would have to take a life-changing journey to tango with some dragons. But that is a story for another day.


	16. Chapter 16

The very next day, Zuko decided to start on Aang's firebending lessons. Unfortunately for the both of them, Zuko had become a wimp overnight and no longer had the ability to bend fire in a manly way.

Even though he was only in front of Aang, Zuko was still greatly embarrassed about this new weakness, so when Sokka came along and began jokingly taunting him, he couldn't help but yell at his crush.

Sokka, on the other hand, was very hurt by this. Even though he had begun his entrance onto the training ground by picking on Zuko, the true reason he had decided to crash the party was because he was very interested in watching Zuko train. Plus, he was very jealous of Aang spending quality time with Zuko, so when Zuko immediately sent him away, Sokka had a hard time not being angry about Zuko choosing the bald airbender over him.

That night though, Sokka learned the real reason Zuko had yelled at him when he visited: Zuko had lost his bending. Since all the kids theorized that the reasoning behind this was that Zuko had drawn from his anger before so he no longer had anything to help him make fire, Sokka chose to try to make him angry. He grabbed a wooden staff and began poking Zuko's chest and giggling a manly giggle. Being poked with a pole by Sokka caused Zuko to become very excited, so he felt the need to yell at Sokka to leave him be while desperately staving off a killer nosebleed.

Long story short, Aang and Zuko decided to take a life-changing journey to bond over firebending.

Once at the village of the Sun Warriors (which is where they decided to travel to learn the secrets of true firebending), Aang realized that Zuko was attractive. This realization was not helped when, as soon as they managed to enter the city, there were several statues depicting men dancing that Aang was sure he was supposed to copy in order to get further.

"Zuko!" Aang called. "I want you to dance with me!"

"What?!" Zuko exclaimed as Aang ran up and clung to his arm, dragging him away. Aang happily danced along with the statues, while Zuko grudgingly did so as well, wishing all the time that it was Sokka across the room from him, mirroring his own movements.

At the end of the dance, a giant, golden chicken egg popped out of the ground. Zuko was starving, so he ran up in order to break it so that he could eat some eggs. Unfortunately, it was a trap. Goo spouted from where the egg had appeared, gluing both of the boys to an air vent in the ceiling of the room.

Years later, they were finally rescued by a tribe of Sun Warriors themselves, even though everyone had been under the impression up to this point that the tribe had been extinct for centuries. The men scolded Zuko and Aang for stealing their breakfast, but once Aang had shared their sob story, the men decided to allow the boys to meet the firebending masters up in the highest room of the tallest tower. However, there was one condition. They both had to carry a flame to present to the masters.

Zuko had no trouble with this...He was manly, after all. Aang, on the other hand, was girlier than Katara. His flame wasn't large nor hot enough to roast even the smallest of marshmallows, so it was no surprise to anyone that it was snuffed out just as the masters were about to appear.

"OMG ZUKO," Aang whispered. "My flame went out! You have to share!"

Zuko rightly refused, feeling as if life would be a lot easier if Aang were to fail this mission. Then Zuko would be the only sexy firebender in Sokka's life, and it would be a lot easier to win his heart. Aang did not approve of Zuko's selfishness, however, and leaped onto his back, groping blindly toward his flame.

After awhile, Aang realized how similar their current position was to hugging, and dropped his hands, embarrassed and excited. When he did this, he had unfortunately grabbed onto Zuko's wrists unintentionally, dragging them away from the flame. As the flame disappeared with a hiss, Zuko gave Aang an astonished look, confused as to why Aang was nuzzling his face into his shoulder blades.

Then the masters came out, and they were dragons. They didn't kill anyone, and suddenly, both boys knew that the true meaning of firebending was rainbows.

They happily descended the stairs and skipped merrily all the way back to the Western Air Temple, Appa lumbering behind them.

When they got back, they eagerly showed the group their manly dance. Sokka and Katara kept making fun of it, calling the "form" a dance (which of course it was). Katara was just amused, but Sokka was soooooooo jealous. _He_ wanted to be the one dancing with Zuko! Aang didn't deserve such nice things!

Aang couldn't stop blushing...He would get to dance with his crush every day until he managed to learn firebending! He resolved to be terrible at it until he died.

Zuko just kept watching Sokka. While Sokka was fantasizing dancing with Zuko, Zuko was fantasizing dancing with Sokka. Both boys hoped that soon their interactions would reach a climax where they could mutually reveal their feelings. Little did they know, that moment would be coming much sooner than either one anticipated.


	17. Chapter 17

It was yet another night at the Western Air Temple when Sokka made a decision that would eventually bring Zuko and him closer together. Zuko was going around serving tea and noticed Sokka sitting alone in the dark. When the banished prince walked over to serve him tea (and cheer him up), Sokka immediately said, "Hey, can I talk to you for a second? Alone?"

Zuko felt his heart skip a beat and watched longingly as Sokka walked away before realizing he was supposed to follow. Sokka led him into a dark corner. This made Zuko excited. What was Sokka going to confess to him?

Unfortunately, Sokka did not say what Zuko wanted him to say. Instead, the manly man started to inquire about fire nation prisoners. Zuko became bored, but answered the questions regardless. However, as he began to walk away, he felt Sokka's hand on his shoulder and got excited again.

Unfortunately, again, Sokka continued talking about boring stuff that Zuko didn't care about. But, he attempted to show that he cared for Sokka's sake. Zuko got excited _again_ when Sokka yawned seductively and caressed his shoulder before heading back to the group. The prince's throat became dry as he watched Sokka walk away in his manly clothes. He was overwhelmed with the seductiveness.

Later that night, Sokka climbed up onto Appa's back (he was going to rescue his father so Zuko could meet him). When he peered over the saddle, he was pleasantly surprised to see Zuko sitting in an extremely seductive pose with his legs splayed apart and a lustful look in his eyes. Sokka was so amazed by Zuko's manliness that he quickly clapped a hand over his nose to stop a nosebleed and fell off of Appa's back.

At first, Zuko was terrified that he had just possibly killed Sokka, but then, after realizing Sokka was okay, be became annoyed that the Water Tribe warrior had left him. When Sokka admitted to wanting to liberate the prison, he asked sarcastically if Zuko was happy.

"I'm never happy," Zuko replied bleakly, convinced that Sokka was disgusted by him.

Zuko leapt off of Appa angrily and landed with a thump. Now he felt bad, because Sokka had just admitted that he believed that it was his fault that his father had been captured.

"I have to regain my honor," Sokka stated firmly. Zuko was nearly speechless. Sokka had listened to him! And repeated his catchphrase!

"I'm going with you," Zuko responded. Then, he looked up. He couldn't help but stare at Sokka's butt as Sokka clambered onto Appa's saddle. Zuko said that he and Sokka should take Zuko's war balloon instead of Appa.

At first, it was awkward riding in the balloon together. Sokka was sitting in yet another seductive pose, but Zuko didn't want to comment on it. He wasn't sure if Sokka had meant to seduce him or not.

Many awkward moments later, they got on the topic of their past girlfriends, making both of them depressed and making things even more awkward.

Soon enough, Sokka decided to pretend to be asleep while still sitting in his seductive manner to see if Zuko would make a move. Unfortunately, Zuko was scared that if he did anything, Sokka would wake up and be very angry and punch his face. When Zuko finally gained enough courage to speak, he calmly called, "We're here," over his shoulder. In an instant, Sokka leapt up, and if Zuko had known him a bit better, he would've figured out within a second that Sokka had been pretending to be asleep. As all of us Avatar fans know, Sokka hates being woken up. It's obvious that he was faking it to see what Zuko would do.

The Water Tribe warrior rushed up beside his crush and leaned forward to get a better view. They were descending toward their destination (a prison surrounded by a lake of boiling water within a volcano...weird), but at a much faster rate. When their balloon skid over the water, some of it splashed up onto Sokka's hand and burned his finger. He inhaled sharply through his teeth at the pain and shook off any extra droplets.

Zuko wanted to give Sokka a comforting hug, but knew better than to go that far when he wasn't even sure if Sokka liked him in that way. The prince didn't have time to contemplate this any further when their balloon hit land roughly and sent them flying forward. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. Sokka had landed in a position with his butt high in the air for Zuko to get a better view, but the bad news was that their balloon had been torn apart.

Sokka decided the best course of action would be to shove the remains of the balloon into the boiling lake. Zuko was not happy about this, but he perked up considerably after they changed into their disguises. First of all, Sokka stripped down to his underwear before they began walking to the prison, because he knew he'd look suspicious in his normal blue outfit (and walking around in underwear is obviously not suspicious). Then, when they put on guard uniforms, Zuko was pleased to discover that the uniforms exposed Sokka's knees. Sokka was equally impressed by Zuko's knees, which were also not covered by the guard uniform. Then, they officially infiltrated the prison.

Soon enough, a prison fight broke out. Zuko was about to jump in and join it, but Sokka reached out and grabbed his arm just before he had a chance to. Sokka's grip wasn't tight, but Zuko liked his hand being there, so he restrained himself from joining the fight.

Later, Sokka found out that his dad wasn't actually at the prison, yet Suki, a "friend" of his, was. Zuko and Sokka found Suki's room. Zuko stood guard outside while Sokka visited his friend. Suki, being Sokka's cover story, was very happy to see him and kissed him. Sokka pretended to be ecstatic about this (even though he really wished it'd been Zuko who kissed him), and Zuko got horribly angry, since he was spying through the window in the cell door.

Then, a female guard walked up, requesting entrance into the cell. Zuko would not let her pass. He knew he had to protect Sokka, even if he was angry with him at the moment. The guard would not leave, and as she attempted to walk around Zuko, he used his manly skills to throw her lazily against the wall with a whap. She began yelling with shock and fought back, but Zuko was just too manly. Sokka took this chance to sneak out of the room, but the wimpy manly woman saw him and called for help. For a few moments, Sokka simply stared with confusion. He wasn't sure what to do. Should he rescue his love or maintain his image? Sokka didn't want to hurt Zuko, but he knew he had no choice.

The Water Tribe warrior calmly approached the situation and grabbed Zuko by the arm, shoving him at the ground. Zuko liked when Sokka was rough with him. Sokka then helped him up, pretending to have his arms secure behind his back, and whispered into his ear, "Don't worry. I'll figure it out." Zuko was suddenly reassured by Sokka's sexy voice.


	18. Chapter 18

Now that Zuko was a prisoner (a "special" one, according to the warden), it was harder for Sokka to get to talk with him. Fortunately, one day while Zuko was mopping like a man, he _did_ get the chance to talk with Sokka, but they weren't alone. Suki was there being a cockblocker. She ruined the mood even more when she sourly shared the memory of Zuko burning down her village. Zuko thought in his head that he obviously didn't do a good enough job. Suki was still here. Sokka then rounded everyone up into a corner and began relaying his clever plan to them. Sokka had come up with the brilliant plot of using the prison's coolers-freezers used to punish rogue firebenders-as a boat to escape the island.

In order to get a cooler though, someone would have to unbolt it from the prison wall itself. And in order to do that, one of the prisoners would need to be sent to the cooler to be punished. Sokka magically pulled a wrench from somewhere behind him and raised his eyebrows at Zuko. Zuko immediately understood the gesture and gently grabbed the wrench. He tucked it in his pants. Sokka blushed and gave him a small smile.

Another prisoner that had joined in after hearing the plot raised his eyebrows when Sokka mentioned someone needing to be put in the cooler. "Oh, _I_ can get you in alright."

After fighting with the other prisoner to gather a crowd, Zuko used his firebending to get sentenced to the cooler, still with the wrench in his pants.

After an hour in the cooler, Sokka came by and opened the door, telling Zuko that he could be escorted back to his cell if he'd learned his lesson. Zuko breathed out some fire, then looked up at Sokka with a seductive half-smile and replied, "Yes, I have. Completely."

When Zuko said "completely," he folded down his prison tunic to reveal the wrench along with all the bolts and screws that had been holding the cooler to the wall. Sokka stared with wide eyes. The innuendo was almost too much for Sokka to handle.

Sokka recovered from his momentary shock, raised his visor, and leaned forward to let Zuko know they wouldn't be alone for long. Zuko was desperate for more time with his beloved Sokka, so he quickly made the excuse that someone was coming before yanking him into the cooler with him. It would've been a dream come true if guards hadn't actually walked by. Sokka stayed close to the door (to eavesdrop on the guards) while Zuko remained in the bitter cold, away from Sokka's warmth. The guards began talking about new prisoners arriving, some of which were prisoners of war.

Sokka felt his stomach flip and turned to stare at Zuko for comfort. Both knew what that meant: Sokka's dad could be part of that group. They stared at each other with intense emotion. Zuko wanted to be there for Sokka in this tough time.

The two manly men discussed whether or not they should postpone their escape in order to wait for his dad. But, they had no way of knowing if his dad was coming or not, so they decided to go along with the initial plan.

By using an undisclosed method of magic, Zuko and Sokka managed to remove the cooler from the prison and roll it down the hill to the shore. Zuko had been hoping for a little more alone time with his love, but he realized this wouldn't be possible when he saw Suki and three other prisoners waiting for them on the shore. Sokka immediately lifted the rock hiding his old clothes, bringing back pleasant memories for Zuko. He quickly repressed these memories, however, knowing he needed to be fully focused on the task of escaping.

Sokka was unsure whether or not he wanted to leave with the others or wait for his dad. He didn't want to fail if he stayed back to rescue his dad. He shared these insecurities with Zuko, who did his best to comfort him.

"Look, Sokka. You're gonna fail a lot before things work out. Even though you'll probably fail over and over again, you still have to try every time. You can't quit because you might fail." Zuko had, during this motivational speech, placed his hand lovingly on Sokka's shoulder.

"Hey, if you two are done cuddling, can we get a move on?" said The Random Plot Device Character, otherwise known as the burly prisoner who had forced himself into their escape plan. Sokka decided he wanted to stay and wait, but before Zuko could say he'd join him, Suki became a cockblocker again and pledged her loyalty to Sokka first. Zuko barely waited two seconds before jumping in eagerly, saying, "I'm staying too."

The other three prisoners left in the makeshift boat anyway, so their only chance of escape was officially gone. Unfortunately, the prisoners were caught by guards in the morning, so they couldn't even replicate their plan again later.

Suki, Sokka, and Zuko stood watching the new prisoners exit the gondola. Zuko was so anxious to meet Sokka's dad that he asked, "Is that him?" about every prisoner that walked out. At first it seemed Sokka's dad wasn't there but then ... _he emerged._


	19. Chapter 19

As soon as Sokka's father had been thrown into a cell, Sokka went to visit him. He _had_ to tell him about Zuko (and rescue him of course, but the Zuko part was more important). At first, Hakoda had no idea that it was his own son that had walked into his cell since Sokka was wearing a scandalous guard uniform, so he almost punched the teen in the gut. Sokka lifted up his mask to reveal his face just in time-it would've led to an incredibly awkward relationship if Hakoda had beat up his own son.

After a teary reunion, Sokka immediately got down to business. At first, he casually asked about what happened to the other prisoners from the invasion, then mentioned that Suki would be escaping with them. This conveniently led to the subject of Zuko, the real reason Sokka wanted to talk to his dad.

"And you know Prince Zuko?" Sokka inquired with the same, nonchalant tone.

"The son of the Fire Lord?" Hakoda asked. "I don't know him, but I know of him."

A satisfied smile curled at Sokka's lips before he continued. "Well, he's here, too."

"Sounds like a major problem," his father replied while crossing his arms thoughtfully.

"Actually," Sokka grinned, "he's on our side, now."

Hakoda raised his eyebrow suspiciously at his son, making Sokka's heart sink. How was he supposed to confess his love if his father already seemed very disapproving? In order to break the awkward silence, Sokka made up a lie that went with Hakoda's thoughts.

"I know. I had the same reaction. After all he's done, it was hard to trust him."

In an instant, an idea hit him that would help lead to what he was actually trying to confess. "But he's really proven himself, and I never would've found you without his help."

At these words, Hakoda dipped his head and Sokka's stomach flipped excitedly. He opened his mouth to continue, but before he could, his father spoke over him.

"So, do you have a plan?"

Sokka's excitement immediately washed away at the subject change, but he explained the previous escape plan (that failed) anyway. Hakoda slapped a hand on Sokka's back reassuringly, and the two spent the rest of the time devising a new plan of escape.

After coming up with the plan, Sokka left his dad so that he could tell Zuko about it. All Sokka got to say though was that they now had a plan, not what it was. He was rudely interrupted by two other guards needing to take Zuko with them on the warden's orders. Sokka had to think fast in order to get out of this situation.

"Can I just have ten more seconds to rough him up a bit?!" Sokka asked. Inside the cell, Zuko became excited after hearing Sokka say something so sexy. Lucky for the both of them, the guards agreed to let Sokka have just one more minute inside Zuko's cell. Once in the cell, Sokka and Zuko knew they had to pretend to be beating each other up, so Zuko rolled up a blanket and held it in front of him for Sokka to punch.

While Sokka was punching the blanket, Zuko couldn't help but get more excited by the violence, and kept giving Sokka his most seductive look. Sokka almost got a nosebleed, but the two guards interrupted _again_. They had only had enough time for Sokka to tell Zuko to meet him in the courtyard in an hour.

When they heard the cell door open, Sokka's first reflex was to shove the blanket away, grab Zuko under the arms, and give him a very violent hug. To the guards, it looked like the two were fighting, but they both knew that Sokka was just telling Zuko good bye for the moment.

The guards dragged Zuko away and threw him in a room with just one wooden chair. He was a bit scared at first without Sokka there to protect him, but then he heard a gravelly voice, and a girl stepped out from the shadows.

It was his ex-"girlfriend" Mai! She was there to discuss her anger about the letter Zuko had given her upon his leaving. In said letter, Zuko had explained that he had never loved her, and she was only a cover story so that no one would suspect that his true love was a boy from the Southern Water Tribe. Knowing the truth didn't make Mai happy at all, though it did help to accept the fact that she never really liked Zuko either, and that her friend Ty Lee was always her true love. However, she wasn't ready for the world to know about this, so she had to continue acting as if she was angry at Zuko and the fact that he loves Sokka.

Meanwhile, Sokka went to visit Suki in order to tell her their new escape plan. As he explained that they were going to escape on the gondola, the Kyoshi warrior looked at him skeptically. Sokka had to fight to hide his irritation at this, for he knew that Zuko always had faith in him. By the time he had finished telling her that they'd take the warden as a prisoner to avoid having the lines cut as they escaped, Suki seemed to be a little more hopeful about the plan. That was when Sokka announced that he had to leave, but before he could walk out the door, she had thrown her arms around him. He reluctantly returned the hug, then stepped out of the cell.

Right when Sokka left, he was confronted by a few guards telling him that the warden wished to see him. The teen attempted to avoid it by asking if he could talk to the warden later, but he was soon grabbed by the arms and taken to the roof of the prison. This was where several other guards were standing in a line, all being accused of helping the Random Plot-Device Character escape. Fortunately for Sokka, the Plot-Device Character didn't rat him out, and instead accused some other guard. The warden fell for it, and Sokka was saved.

Sokka took this opportunity to continue with the new escape plan. He went to a guard controlling the cell doors of the prisoners and told him to let the prisoners out. The guard was very reluctant at first, with the prison being in a lock-down and all, but Sokka was amazingly smart and threatened to tell the warden that the guard wasn't following orders. With that, the prisoners were immediately released into the courtyard.


End file.
